By Mark P. Dangelo
www.Innovative-Relevance.com
One of the few bright spots in lasting recessions is the birth of relevant innovation. These are the new products and services that markets and consumers want, which are pragmatic and sustainable regardless of the economic plight surrounding them. More new businesses start in times of chaos than in times of prosperity. The seeds of the next wave of business processes and supporting solution sets are growing.
Yet, not all relevant innovation is from quantum breakthroughs in technology. Often times the most momentous advancements are those that involve the layering of proven technologies in new and unique alignments. Additional gains are made from using modified processes, procedures, and formulations. Finally, the remainder is driven by new educational standards, skills learned, or via collaborative intelligence.
Let’s explore two potential paradigms that are quietly emerging to those seeking new uses for proven technologies.
A Vision to Look Beyond Today
The markets have seen an explosion of solutions targeting fraud in all its forms – misappropriation, misstatement, bribery, corruption, identity, occupancy, income, appraisal, shot-gunning, and the list goes on. The advances in data aggregation, statistical modeling, and integrity have given originators and law enforcement agencies new tools to combat illegal acts. But, whereas these increasingly robust solution sets are eliminating fraud in new, refinanced, or modification loan originations, there are additional benefits yet to be booked with the potential extension of solutions.
For example, what struck me as having huge potential during the recent MBA Annual event was an announcement by MERS and Interthinx on their National Fraud Prevention Solution. Why did this standout? What was missed by the invited press was the underlying and potential supply chain altering principles beyond identifying fraud just during the origination processes.
When examined along the entire value or supply chain of mortgage processes – origination, servicing, securitization – the existence of a common source of aggregated information potentially offers touchpoints for bonds and equities, repurposing existing asset classes, insurance, government regulators, and of course, all aspects of complex servicing. In manufacturing terms, think of it as forward and reverse supply chains where parts are sourced in many places, but assembled in one place to create a working product.
Examined differently, if fraud information is good for the origination of a loan, why shouldn’t it be used for the same loan, borrower, and institution throughout its life-cycle? Case in point, if the loan is non-portfolioed and securitized with other “quality” loans, then over its life should the borrower or trustee overseeing the tranches (e.g., covered or hybrid bonds), all sourced aspects of the loan must be permanently accessible. The same will hold true for portfolioed loans and the new Basel rules requiring greater capital reserves in 2010 against held assets.
After all, the “originate and forget” model is dead – which is why private securitization went from nearly 65% of the market to under 5% in just three years. There are parallels and lessons learned in other industries – insurance, equities, and healthcare.
If fraud is rooted in risk mitigation, then the data for risk analysis will require a comprehensive integration of the entire data or mortgage supply chain for life. Risk analysis and the underlying agencies and regulators, which will be taking more active governance roles, require a non-siloed vision. A game-changing option is made available once we look beyond the “false” industry containers of information, and into the greater comprehension demanding new operating paradigms.
While the MERS and Interthinx announcement was positive, there is a potential for a permanent shift that reverberates across the industries – like a pebble being dropped into the center of a pond.
Think Differently, Act Aggressively
With nearly 1.7 million borrowers three or more payments behind last month, the challenges of loan modifications are still mounting. Whereas, the government has claimed success for on-going workout initiatives – albeit it permanent or temporary loan restructurings – according to RealyTrac nearly 940,000 were in foreclosure filings during Q2 2009.
In general, the optimistic industry personnel are trying to stress the positives – low interest rates, government incentives, and a hope that the bottom has been put into the market free fall. Others aren’t so hopeful. But whether you believe in a recovery or more pain, one thing is very clear – how do you reach out to a customer in trouble or those seeking advice?
The complexity and breath of answers stagger the imagination. However, what is evident is that no one method will work for all classes of loans or customers. A multi-dimensional approach using all available market and technology channels needs to be cohesively integrated to ensure the best for all parties involved – borrower, lender, servicer, and investor.
One proven technology that has been used to drive consumers to secure new loans was search engine optimization or SEO. SEO is well known to marketing professionals and ad agencies. Many users commonly associate SEO with Google, Yahoo, or other search engine rankings and ad placement. It worked great to drive potential lenders to sites during the “go-go” credit of this last decade, but does it have a use now?
The short answer is yes. SEO is undergoing a rebirth among a new class of innovative firms (e.g., Enquisite), which move beyond the mere generation of prospects and into ROI, analytics, and performance. The new solution sets employ “organic” and paid placements to arrive at a composite of contacts who may want assistance and who may have been doing research on your corporate “landing pages.”
The methods of achieving this result are beyond this article, but suffice it to say that there are fundamental shifts in the way SEO is being used – for today and tomorrow. Some additional uses for performance driven SEO are in support of compliance, loan modifications, servicing, and to address political concerns that the financial institutions are not doing enough to reach out and assist struggling homeowners and consumers at risk.
For those in the retail channels trying to assess their customer approaches, novel macro uses of SEO are beginning to capture the imagination, while influencing operating initiatives. Although, many thought they knew what SEO was, the rules are being rewritten by relevant innovators eager to assist and able to deliver.
In summary, SEO is increasingly becoming part of closed-loop systems for channel deployments and operating feedback supported by adaptive process improvement techniques. It has moved well beyond simple lists, clicks and conversions.
Adapting a phrase from history, it can be said, “I never knew SEO, but it knew me.”
